Our first foray into long form journalism will be a viewing of VH1's Behind the Music. This profile is of Usher. Please watch at least the first 18:00 or so and comment on:
-the storytelling
-the visuals
-the music
Notice the first 2:00 or so is a "tease" for the hour-long program. Very well done, following the ups and downs of Usher's career...that is a little hint of what is coming in the storytelling.
Here is the link. If it does not work google the episode and you will be able to find it elsewhere. If you cannot find this episode please watch another Behind the Music episode and comment on it.
http://www.vh1.com/video/behind-the-music/full-episodes/usher/1643930/playlist.jhtml
Behind The Music gives an in-depth account into the life of R&B superstar Usher. The narrator does an excellent job of telling his story and how many people characterize Usher as "Pop's Most Eligible Bachelor" and "The Golden Boy of R&B."
ReplyDeleteThe storytelling in the show is done by a narrator, Usher himself, and those closest to him including his mother, his ex-girlfriend singer Chilli from the Grammy-award winning group TLC, as well as other artists who have worked with Usher.
There are many visuals, images, and videos that capture the stages of the R&B singer's life in the music industry as well as his upbringing. These visuals give the viewer insight into the essence of what has made Usher into the person he is today.
The program plays Usher's biggest hits from albums he released and the narrator and those who know Usher describe the influence behind his music.
These three elements: the storytelling, visuals, and the music from VH1's Behind the Music are put together in a manner so that the viewer can accurately see what happened during the course of Usher's career.
from Candice Cameron--
ReplyDeleteThis presentation by VH-1 about Usher was very well done in all 3 aspects: The storytelling, visuals and music. The narration was well scripted and delivered in accordance with the visuals. The storytelling through this narration was vivid and thorough with good attention to time sequence and emphasis when needed by inserting a more accurate and graphic depiction by Usher when appropriate.
The visuals complimented the storytelling as all graphics coincided with what was being expressed through narration.
The music, of course was all of Usher's music, but it was also very complimentary to the storytelling and visuals as a whole. The songs that they chose to play in particular cleverly emphasized not only the narration but told its own story that was able to fill in between the lines.
This Behind the Music episode uses an interesting tactic when it comes to the video. Multiple times in the music beds the video was not full screen and used multiple transitions that are not typical in features. They used film reals and film filters over his father's photos, which ads to the past tense feel to the segment. Unlike some documentaries about celebrities, this one is fast paced and uses a lot of quick shot changes to get from one part to another.
ReplyDeleteWith all the audio work in this feature they do a really good job at fading them up and down between the music videos and the narration.
Another interesting aspect to the feature is the way the interviews were shot. Usher is offset to the right, while most of the other interviews are centered on the screen, would be better if they were all the same.
The plot line is interesting and encompasses all of the aspects of Usher becoming a pop artist. I agree with Candice in the fact that the storytelling was very well complimented with b-roll and photos that emphasized the story being told.
The storytelling:
ReplyDeleteI like that the storytelling begins with him as a child and it is like a storyline. It lets you go through his life with him like you are living it with him, especially if you remember when certain albums or songs came out. Also, I like that they use people in his life that represent a big part of his career and let them tell their side of the story of Ushers life.
The visuals:
One thing I like about visuals for Behind the Music is sometimes they will take a picture or piece of a video of Usher when he was maybe looking somber and use it to show a bad or depressing time in his life, to add to the effect. It's like their trying to portray and make you visualize and see his pain and/or sadness. Which is a good technique.
The music:
Just like the visuals they used his songs that were sad or whatever and if he was going through something at the moment, they used that to represent that part of his life. Like when the relationship with Chili came up, they show some of the,"you gotta bad" video, in which Chili was in.
Overall, I think this behind the music was very well did and portrayed Ushers life very well.
I have seen Behind The Music several times and know the formula of the show. They often show the artist's life in chronological order from birth to now. It was no different for the episode featuring Usher. The storytelling in this episode was great especially since they used footage and pictures from Usher's childhood and teen years. By having the story being told by multiple people in his life as well as him, you feel like you are receiving firsthand information.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned earlier the visuals such as video footage and pictures made the show even better. For example, the show mentioned how he was how he had to go to "flavor camp" as well as how he was a lady's man. This was proven with video footage of him with Sean "P. Diddy" Combs as well as footage of Usher kissing girl's hands and entertaining them.
Lastly, the music moved the show along because there were songs that were used at every point of his career. For example, with his first album there were songs playing in the background while different elements of his life were being discussed like him entering into puberty, songs that were inappropiate for him at his age, etc.
By using his music, it was easy to identify whatever area of his life VH1 was discussing.
This "Behind the Music" piece was very well done. I especially liked how all aspects, the music, visuals, and narration all told the story the same way just in a different format.
ReplyDeleteThe 2 minute teaser was well put together and did a good job telling what was to come in detail in a very concise way. It also seamlessly flowed into the actual story. I enjoyed how the TV from the "OMG" video played back pictures from usher as an adult and down to his childhood to start the beginning of his story.
Another cool visual was the cross dissolve between his dad's picture and his as he was saying, "Doesn't he know we have the same name?" to show the father-son resemblance. The editor was smart about his/her clip transitions also. They were interesting without being visually gaudy like the parts where they talk about his mom taking him on the road and his relationship with Chili. The editor also made interesting use of filters when showing pictures of Chili and Usher and also towards the end on pictures of him and dad.
Moving on to the music, I liked it. They did a good job of telling the story with it. Every situation had a matching track from Usher himself or some kind of emotion raising instrumental. The audio levels were good and the dramatic sounds to accompany his times of let down or loss were never overbearing on the narrator as he told Usher's story, but complementing his narration.
-Carrie Ford
The pictures and videos visually told the story as the words were said, almost so well that the story could be followed with or without audio.
I felt the VH1 special of Usher was very well done from start to finish. It effectively informs the viewer of Usher's life chronologically as it begins with his childhood and travels to the present-day ladies man that he is. What made the storytelling so effective were the visuals and photographs from Usher's childhood. The photographs were woven in seamlessly over the audio to enhance the story that was being told. This was especially effective when telling about his younger years and his parents. Once the storytelling got into some of his later years, more videos were introduced to enhance the storyline which made it even more aesthetically pleasing to watch. There were also graphics placed in particular places that added needed specificity or enhancement that added greatly to the program and appealed greatly to the targeted audience (teenagers with limited attention spans).
ReplyDeleteThroughout all of this, the music always enhanced the program. As one image or photograph would fade in or out of the screen, it would always do so on the beat of the music that was being played in the background. It would also do this when the picture was being zoomed in on to a person's face. The music was also always fitting to the particular mood that was being translated during that particular part of the story of Usher's life. For instance, during some of the more sad stories from his childhood, the music in the background would be more melancholy to enhance the story that was being told at that time.
All in all, I believe the music and the visuals that were shown throughout this program did nothing but enhance the story of Usher and his road to becoming the superstar that he is known as today.
-Katharine
The storytelling- I love the way that the tease was done, it does a great job showing the ups and downs of Usher’s life in a matter of moments. It also grabs your attention by talking about the most scandalous moments of his life. I like the way that they start off with who he is now and then transition back to show where he started. The way that they showed him as a child singing and all the old footage makes everything seem more real. Putting that with the real life testimony from Usher and people in his life really brings everything together. It was really put together nicely.
ReplyDeleteThe visuals- They had LOTS of b-roll which enhanced the story. All of the old footage and photographs were used strategically during discussions to break up the monotony of just staring at people talking about things. You can tell that the use of visuals was heavily planned out, and how they edited them together made all the difference.
The music- A lot of the music seems to be usher’s songs from the past , but even the music that is not Usher’s was articulated well. They used upbeat music for the parts that were going well for him but when the story wasn’t going well and they were discussing hardships in his life they used more somber music. This was done to enhance the story and I think they did a good job. It made you ‘feel’ something, even if you didn’t want to!
Overall, I think that this piece was very well done and told Usher’s story in a compelling way.
Olivia
The storytelling was excellent in this piece. I know that we could've watched just the first 18 minutes and stopped but I got 28 minutes into this thing before I even thought of looking at the timer. It's a very tight show, not a single second was wasted and even seemingly orphan information is brought back later. The narration seemed a little intrusive, but only because they did such a good job of letting the interviews do the heavy lifting of carrying the narrative forward.
ReplyDeleteI'm not really familiar with Usher's music at all but I believe that most of the music presented was his own. Other than that I thought the music was mostly invisible, which is always a good thing.
As for the visuals, I think that form really followed the content. This show looks like a music video itself. Besides incorporating actual music video footage at the appropriate time, they was a liberal application of video filters (randomly making color photos black and white), a slightly non-linear narrative, tilting the camera at an angle, and every now and again, a dash of zoom.